The Important Reason This Hospital Is Giving New Moms 'Baby Boxes'

It might seem a little strange to put your newborn baby in a cardboard box. But one hospital is teaching moms that it's the safest thing possible for their little bundles of joy.

In a new, year-long project, Philadelphia's Temple University Hospital will give free "baby boxes" to all moms who deliver there. The idea is to decrease the rate of "co-sleeping," the practice of parents sleeping in the same bed as their babies. Done incorrectly, co-sleeping is associated with a higher risk of infant mortality. According to Philly.com, many local parents co-sleep with their kids because it's part of their culture, or their parents co-slept with them. Others do so because they can't afford a crib, or lack the space for one.

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The boxes are functioning bassinets and come with a sheet and a firm mattress, which help keep the baby sleeping on his or her back and away from toys and stuffed animals. They also contain essential items for the baby, like onesies and baby books. The boxes, manufactured by The Baby Box Company, are worth around $80 to $100 each.

Temple University will give out the baby boxes to new moms, and also direct them to a website about how to care for their newborns. The study will occur for a full year, and then Temple will analyze whether the boxes helped keep kids safe. According to the hospital, North Philadelphia has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country; Many new moms are extremely poor and lack the resources to care for their babies.

"We weren't sure how people were going to react to putting their babies in a box, but it's been an overwhelmingly positive response," Dr. Megan Heere told ABC News. Temple is the first hospital in America to test out baby boxes on this large of a scale.

Baby boxes are popular elsewhere in the world, and parents in the U.S. are just now taking notice. In Finland, the government gives them out to every new mom, and the practice dramatically dropped the country's infant mortality rates.